Hasina consoles Pranab, to meet Modi

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has met with Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi and consoled the Indian President on Wednesday morning. The Bangladesh PM is also set to hold a meeting with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi after attending funeral of Suvra Mukherjee, wife of Pranab Mukherjee. The meeting will be held at Modi’s residence. Suvra Mukherjee passed away in Delhi on Tuesday morning at the age of 75. President Abdul Hamid and PM Hasina mourned the death of Indian first lady. Hasina will attend her funeral to be held at the Lodi Road crematorium. The Bangladesh prime minister is expected to leave New Delhi for Dhaka around 3pm, said Press Secretary to the PM Ehsanul Karim.
A fight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, carrying the PM and her entourage, left Hazrat Shahjalal (R) International Airport of Dhaka for Delhi at 6am. Some of cabinet members saw off her at the airport. Her sister Sheikh Rehana, PM’s daughter Saima Wazed Putul, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and the PM’s Principal Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad are accompanying her.
After attending funeral of wife the Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Hasina will hold a meet with Modi at his official residence at 5, Race Course Road in the Indian capital in the afternoon.
Earlier, the Biman flight carrying Hasina and her entourage, landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi around 7:50am local time. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Bangladesh ambassador Syed Moazzam Ali received her at the airport. From the airport, Hasina went to the Rashtrapati Bhaban (presidential palace) and then to house of Avijit Mukherjee, the president’s son, where the body of Suvra Mukherjee has been kept.
Late Suvra Mukherjee’s ancestral home is in Bhadrabila village in Narail district of Bangladesh. She was suffering from respiratory problems and had a cardiac arrest about a fortnight ago, according to India media reports. Former West Bengal Congress president Pranab Mukherjee enjoys intimate relations with the family of Bangladesh’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. An ardent Rabindra Sangeet exponent and a talented painter, Suvra was born on Sept 17, 1940 and spent the first five years at Bhadrabila. She studied up to second grade at local Chachrha Primary School before settling in India with her family. One of her brothers still lives at Bhadrabila village, according to a news agency.
- mbz